Designing Means Executing Power

- the Relationship Between Design, Ideology and Behaviour

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PHD DEFENSE In practice, design is closely interwoven with the regulation of behaviour and thus with the execution of power. Trine Brun Petersen makes this point in her Ph.D. dissertation about design as an ideological and behaviour-regulating phenomenon. She argues that design can be used proactively and strategically for the benefit of society. But this requires that designers have interdisciplinary insight.

By Hans Emborg Bünemann

Manipulating the physical conditions through design also means manipulating human behaviour and relations. This insight is a crucial point in the Ph.D. dissertation Statsfængslet Østjylland som social teknologi – en diskussion af design som et ideologisk og adfærdsregulerende fænomen (The Danish state prison Statsfængslet Østjylland as social technology – a discussion of design as an ideological and behaviour-regulating phenomenon), which Trine Brun Petersen defended at the Kolding School of Design on 1 October 2010. In her analysis of the relationship between design, ideology and behaviour, one of her conclusions is that design is not value-neutral; on the contrary, it is imbued with social interests and power relations.

The Designer’s Power in Society

Often, the design of an object is essentially motivated by a desire to promote or inhibit particular user behaviours. Thus, design praxis is closely interwoven with the execution of power, says Trine Brun Petersen. She points to an example from the literature on political science, which illustrates how design can lead to social exclusion and even reflect a racist logic.
“In the period from 1920 to 1970 the architect Robert Moses built overpasses across the parkways on Long Island by New York. Moses designed the overpasses to be so low that only cars could reach the recreational area of Jones Beach. That prevented African Americans and other low-income groups, who relied on buses for transportation, from going to Jones Beach,” says Trine Brun Petersen. She points out that the overpass design illustrates the need to take a critical stance in the assessment of the societal role of design. That is also one of the goals of her Ph.D. project, which had as its primary research question, What is the relationship between users and objects?

Originally, the architects intended the section office with an open counter in the common area (the white area in the drawing) to be a meeting place for inmates and staff. Illustration: Friis & Moltke

We Need Knowledge About Design

Her analysis of the design and function of the Danish state prison Statsfængslet Østjylland highlights the importance of knowledge about the behaviour-regulating effects of design. In its original design, this prison, which was designed by the architectural firm Friis & Moltke, included a centrally situated section office with an open counter in a café-like environment that was intended to promote trust and natural interactions between prison inmates and staff. However, after objections from the prison staff about safety concerns, the office was equipped with a wall made of plaster and safety glass; the wall signals surveillance, and in practice it serves to increase the gap between the two groups.

Arguments Carry the Day

According to Trine Brun Petersen, the case illustrates the importance of being able to argue in favour of a given design solution.
“The architects knew instinctively that the end-solution was a bad choice for the prison, and that it would promote inappropriate behaviour by reducing social interactions both within and among the groups of staff and inmate. Had they had access to research-based knowledge about the behaviour-regulating potential of design, they would have been able to field arguments in favour of a solution that matched the architectural value base, which is to facilitate social interactions. Instead, the more easily quantifiable demand for security and economy, such as the ability to save on man hours during the night shift, came to carry the day,” she explains.

The ‘glass cage’ replacing the open counter embodies the prison staff’s mistrust of the inmates and thus becomes a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy: Because the staff fears informal contact, a physical setting is designed that hampers the development of friendly relations between the two groups. Photo: Friis & Moltke

Design Thinking With Political Impact

In her dissertation Trine Brun Petersen uses this and other examples to illustrate how design can be used proactively and strategically for the good of society. But if design thinking and the understanding of social and cultural consequences of design are to have a greater impact on political decision-making, the necessary background knowledge about these mechanisms must be strengthened through design research, she argues.
“Research can analyse and explain the behaviour-regulating mechanisms that design solutions can deliver in practice,” she says and mentions another example: “With an appropriate design of the urban environment, we can increase the number of people who bike to work instead of taking the car. In addition to the environmental benefits, that would also improve public health and reduce expenses in the health care sector and sick leave in the workplace. But that sort of strategic approach to the impact of the physical environment on human behaviour and, in turn, to the development of society requires insight into a wide range of disciplines including psychology, economics and philosophy. This interdisciplinary insight can produce much more qualified decision-making processes for government and user groups. That’s a strong argument in favour of the increased emphasis on academic approaches that the field of design is currently undergoing in Denmark,” she says.

Urinal with fly. The idea of placing a drawing of a fly close to the drain in the urinal comes from Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam. Most men aim for the fly almost automatically, which reduces splashing and thus the need for cleaning dramatically. Illustration: Pissoir designed by Philippe Starck for Duravit. Copyright Duravit AG

Strategies for Behaviour-Regulating Design

In her Ph.D. dissertation Trine Brun Petersen lists a variety of strategies to influence human behaviour through design. She believes that designers are interested in the social impact of their work.
“Many designers would be able to apply research-based knowledge about the impact of design in practice,” says Trine Brun Petersen and mentions several examples of strategies for behaviour-regulating design:
“Design can affect our behaviour through prohibition as in Moses’ parkway overpasses, through encouragement as in the little drawing of a fly that is placed on the spot in the urinal that users should aim for to minimise splashing, or through the user’s self-interest as in the speed bump that will damage the car if the driver is speeding.”

According to Trine Brun Petersen, a more detailed study of the ways in which designers can unfold these and other strategies in their concrete design praxis and how the strategies affect users would be an obvious task for design research in extension of her dissertation.

Illustration at top: Prison design. Through an analysis of the Danish state prison Statsfængslet Østjylland in the making combined with interviews with inmates and staff after the official opening in 2006, Trine Brun Petersen’s Ph.D. dissertation explores the values that governed the design of the prison.
Photo: Friis & Moltke